


tumblr writings

by queenkatharine



Category: Three Dark Crowns Series - Kendare Blake
Genre: Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-08
Updated: 2020-05-06
Packaged: 2020-06-24 12:18:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,485
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19723540
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/queenkatharine/pseuds/queenkatharine
Summary: I'm posting things I wrote on Tumblr here so people can read it.





	1. arsinoe's blanket-hogging

Jules woke suddenly and, at first, for no obvious reason at all. Facing the nightstand, she could see that the clock on it read that it was almost three o’clock in the morning. Her mind was slow to process the time, and it took even longer for her to question what had woken her up.

The chill of the cold early-morning air against her exposed arms and legs hit her a few moments later, when she felt the little hairs on her skin rising with her goosebumps. All at once, Jules understood what had happened.

Rolling over onto her other side, she noticed that the blanket, which had been covering her only a few minutes ago, was bunched tightly around Arsinoe.

Sighing, Jules looked over the blanketed heap of Arsinoe’s body to see if Billy was awake. In the dim light of the room, she locked eyes with a very-awake Billy, who was frowning tiredly and gave Jules a knowing look. His arms were crossed against his chest to preserve his body heat.

Jules shook her head in annoyance, all too familiar with this occurrence.

Arsinoe was the kind of sleeper who gathered as much of the blanket for herself as she could, which always left Jules and Billy shivering in their sleep and more than a little annoyed when they woke up in the middle of the night because of it.

“Arsinoe,” Jules whispered quietly, careful not to startle her awake. Billy had done that during the first few times this had happened, only to be punched in the face when Arsinoe had woken up abruptly. “Wake up.”

Billy poked the blankets a few times to see if she would stir. Nothing. Arsinoe may as well have been dead to the world.

After a few failed moments of trying to wake Arsinoe, Billy finally huffed and looked to Jules. “Do you want to use the blanket on the couch?”

Jules thought about it, then nodded and got up. Billy followed her into the living room. He got the blanket off the back of the couch and laid down, squishing as far back as he could to make room for Jules. Jules simply followed with her back against his chest, his arm drawing in her smaller figure as he threw the blanket over themselves.

Billy closed his eyes. “When we wake up, I’m going to kill her.”

Jules laughed. “I’ll help you with that.”

Though it was still chilly, Jules and Billy managed to fall asleep as their breathing slowed down and their dreams took over.

*

The next morning, when Arsinoe got up and made her way into the living room, she stumbled upon a half-awake Jules and Billy on the couch, both of them drinking tea and looking vaguely pissed off when they spotted her.

“Well, good morning to you, too, my loves,” she said brightly, a wide smile overtaking her face. “I hope you slept well.”

Jules grabbed a pillow off the couch and threw it squarely at Arsinoe’s face.


	2. katharine in the afterlife

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was inspired by/based on the artwork of @kadisbook999 on tumblr (https://kadisbook999.tumblr.com/post/616395948961218560/katherine-no-longer-needs-to-wear-black-clothes). The original post is a what-if of Kat surviving the end of 5DF, but I interpreted it as her being in the afterlife. My description of Katharine and certain phrases are taken directly from that post, with permission from the artist. Enjoy!

Katharine no longer needs to wear black clothes.

As she traipses through the misty woods with her familiar by her side, a light wind ruffles the long, loose sleeves of her green dress, the skirt billowing behind her. The breeze is neither cool nor warm against her skin. Her long black hair is unbraided and flowing; some might call it unqueenly, but there’s no one around to scold her and pull and tighten her locks until they resembled the styles of the high nobility. It matters not anymore – Katharine is no longer a queen.

A gorgeous fox is at her side, its reddish-brown fur shining despite the lack of sunlight. Katharine reaches down and runs a hand over its coat and admires her familiar as the white tuft at the tip of its tail swishes side to side.

Natalia once said that the word for fox in one of the mainland languages was renard, Katharine muses. For a moment, memories of a large house and a library and a boy flash through her mind before they slip away from her, the finer details murky as she tries to hold them still, but she can’t grasp onto her thoughts long enough to remember why that house is so important. It is insignificant now.

It takes a while for her to realize that she’s barefoot and that the soles of her feet are making contact with the soft moss on the forest floor. Why is she walking barefoot? The question is there and then gone. Katharine laughs. How silly a question that is! What does it matter if she has shoes on? She is perfectly safe without them. 

Her hands reach down to touch the moss, and Katharine pauses as she looks her nails, her fingers, the backs of her palms. Her skin is unblemished. Katharine is alarmed for all of one second before she calms again. She can’t understand why she’d thought her skin would be anything but smooth, yet she had been expecting faded scars to mar her hands. A minutes’ pause doesn’t give way to much explanation.

“I must have had a bad dream,” she contemplates aloud. 

Florina, her familiar, nudges Katharine’s hand with her nose. Anything related to Katharine’s dream fades into the back of her mind as she smiles softly down at her fox. Katharine can’t imagine not having Florina by her side.

Up ahead, there is a break in the mist and what appears to be a grove of trees takes shape. Katharine’s strides lengthen and soon she’s standing in the middle of the grove full of bare trees. Not bare, Katharine thinks as she sees small buds some of the branches. Instinctively, her naturalist gift reaches out, extending past herself and examining the buds. Cherry blossoms.

Never had she seen cherry blossoms in person before, not where she had previously lived. But where was that? Here, in this grove of cherry blossom trees? Impossible. In the mist of the woods behind her? Certainly not. While she felt safe there with the moss beneath her feet and the trees soaring high above her, she knew that hadn’t been home. Home. Katharine isn’t familiar with the concept of home.

That thought stops Katharine in her place, rooting her feet to the ground and her hand outstretched towards one of the budding branches. Don’t I have a home? She wracks her brain for something, anything that might prove her wrong otherwise. There is the large house that she’d forgotten up until now. No, that’s not it. Perhaps it’s the cottage with the field of flowers and the calm river, but that doesn’t seem quite right either.

Florina snaps her out of her thoughts again with a small, impatient noise. What had she been doing? Oh, the cherry blossoms. They seem incongruous with the trees in the forest she’d left behind. This grove doesn’t make sense, but it feels right for her to be standing here. Soon it will be spring, and although she is not a very strong naturalist, Katharine knows she will be able to help blossom the cherry blossom buds.

(She thought she’d left spring behind.)

Katharine reaches out once more and cups a section of buds on the nearest branch. It takes a moment of focus for the buds to unfurl into delicate petals in front of her eyes. The new flowers are not fully grown, but they will be. The flowers’ frailty will soon turn into beauty. Katharine repeats this for as long as she can until she stands back and admires the blossoming trees around her.

With that finished, Florina leads the way out of the grove and back into the mist. Katharine is perfectly content to follow. Nothing is urgent, and if she needs to be somewhere, she’ll get there eventually. There is no rush.

She follows and stops here and there to help a flower along. It’s not until she hears the crash of waves against a cliff-side that she knows where she’s going. The mist thins out the more Katharine walks in the direction of the sea.

A laugh carries through the air and Katharine recognizes it the instant it reaches her ears. How could she not know that laugh? It has been some time since she last heard it, and even longer than that before that occurrence. But she stills remembers it. A burst of warmth spreads through her chest. It seems ridiculous to Katharine now that she hadn’t known where home was. It was obviously here, with the smell of sea salt in the air.

Katharine picks up her pace into a run as the mist breaks ahead at the top of the cliff. She puts her hand up in greeting, a laugh escaping her as Florina meets her speed alongside her. A figure stands where the mist clears out, turning to Katharine with a smile. Katharine returns the smile.

“Mirabella!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I took some liberties with the mainland, considering that the French language probably doesn't exist in the TDC world. But I did notice that Pietyr's last name, Renard, means fox in French and I thought it fit perfectly with the whole fox familiar concept. I simply couldn't resist adding that in there.


End file.
